Carmelo Anthony is not getting traded to the Clippers for Blake Griffin and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. The two sides have not even discussed this idea. It doesn’t matter if Chris Paul wants him or not.

“There’s always trade rumors to try and get [me and Paul] together,” Anthony said. “It never happened … It was stupid and silly.”

The Knicks should have some concern that they are going to lose Carmelo Anthony this summer (it seems the people around ‘Melo are pushing that line of thinking) but their long term plan remains to re-sign him this summer. If you are going to get him in a trade, you have to blow the Knicks’ doors off.

The Clippers aren’t going to do that. Doc Rivers said as much. Griffin is an All-Star forward at age 24 whose game is still improving — and it’s a game that is a much better pick-and-roll fit on offense with CP3 than ‘Melo. The Clippers need consistent defense up front, that’s not what Anthony brings to the table.

Plus, after years of messed up draft picks Griffin is the one the Clippers nailed. He is the focus of their marketing campaign, he’s wildly popular with Clipper fans. Los Angeles isn’t moving him for ‘Melo. Or really anyone else.

Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers picked up a 96-91 victory over their Staples Center roommates on Wednesday night, but don’t get it twisted: Kobe Bryant and Co. certainly don’t view a victory over the Clippers as a big win in a rivalry game.

“Please,” Bryant said when asked about what the rivalry victory meant to the Lakers’ superstar. “We’ve got five championships. … Rivals come from the playoffs.”

The 13-time All-Star declared his Lakers don’t have a rivalry following a game that saw six technical fouls, a couple shoving matches, an ejection and a flagrant to boot, but he wasn’t shy about standing up for his teammates following the raucous affair. The Clippers took offense to some of the actions that Lakers’ Metta World Peace and Pau Gasol took part in, but Bryant said that was exactly what needed to happen.

Bryant told Yahoo! that “There’s a couple [expletives] in this league you don’t mess with – and Metta is one of them.”

“Hey, you better talk to them,” Bryant advised the Clippers’ Chauncey Billups, according to Wojnarowski. “You better tell them to leave Ron alone. Someone is going to get their ass knocked out in front of everybody.”

Gasol showed that he wasn’t soft during the game, either, though it was through a simple pat on the head of Clippers point guard Chris Paul in a move that the latter apparently decided was a bit too patronizing for his liking. Bryant was unable to calm Paul down, but he told Yahoo! Sports that it was good to see a bit of fight from his big man.

“Pau’s not a patronizing guy,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports. “I’d do some stuff like that, but not him. That’s just not him.

“Chris doesn’t like that stuff. He’s got that little-man complex. I do that to his head all the time. Man, he just hates it. But he’s a tough little [expletive], and he’s not going to let that [expletive] slide, accident or not.”

It was only a start for Bryant and the Lakers as they’re still trying to shake off the effects of a shortened-preseason and the retirement of head coach Phil Jackson that caused them to begin the season with a middling 11-8 record, but it seems Wednesday night’s win was certainly a step in the right direction.

Instead of the media discussing the effects of Mike Brown’s offense, the poor play of the Lakers’ backcourt or if Bryant still has what it takes to put the team on his back when they need a big win, the topic of discussion following Wednesday night’s win was about how the Lakers looked like a tough team that are willing to do whatever it takes to get a win — even if the game does get a little dirty.

And that, judging by Bryant’s comments, is exactly what he wants the team to do every time they step out on the court.

After the Achilles injury he looked slower — in part because of the injury and in part because he was heavier. New coach Doug Collins noticed that, and challenged Brand to get back to his official listed weight of 254.

The Sixers have a roster that should run — Andre Iguodala is a tremendous finisher in the open court, Jrue Holiday can run the break, getting Evan Turner some easy transition buckets would help his confidence, Andres Nocioni and Thaddeus Young can run.

Brand did to back in the day, the dangerous big trailing the initial break. If he can board and run this season, getting closer to his old form, it would be a big boost for the Sixers.

Even before it was clear that Wednesday night was his last night as a head coach, Clippers interim Kim Hughes was honest.

I was there his first game, when he jokingly called Chris Kaman emotionally retarded (well, half joking anyway) and after the game admitted that he may not have the ball handlers to run the open offensive style he wanted. TrueHoop’s Kevin Arnovitz penned a brilliant ode to Hughes the other day.

“With free agency, when you have nine guys who are looking for number one (that’s human nature), their objective is to get a contract for next year first,” said Hughes. “It’s unfortunate that it’s that way but that’s reality.”

“Do free agents listen to you? I don’t know about that one,” said Kim. “I don’t think it’s the interim [tag] as much as the free agency that stops the process of entering their ear drums and going to the synapses in their brain. I think sometimes it short circuits where they’re free agents because their agents are telling them ‘You’ve got to score points’ – and coach says ‘You’ve got to guard and defend.'”

“They’re thinking ‘Who should I listen to?'”

“I understand that it’s not a good system but it’s our system here in the NBA.”

“It’s our fault as coaches and GM’s. It’s [Commissioner David] Stern’s fault,” continued Hughes. “I’ve told them if they want to have a good product, you take the base related income and you kick in say $1.5 million per player for winning the title. You’ll see guys play balls out. That’s the way you’ll get guys to play hard because right now there’s no inducement to win the NBA Finals other than for the ring because they’re taking a pay-cut. But If you have some of these eight, ninth, tenth players playing for $1.5 million? Their girlfriends and wives will be beating the crap out of them to say you play I don’t care if you’re hurt, you play. You’re playing for something. Right now players aren’t playing for enough. They’re playing for salaries and that doesn’t make it. Back when it was the way it should be you’re playing to win because when you’ve got $200-300k playoff money – that was big. Now it’s nothing. It’s not comparable enough to their salaries. It doesn’t work.”

The night before Baron Davis had said the next year he wanted to be the leader of the Clippers. Hughes called him out on that.

“To be a leader you’ve got to be the first one to practice and the last one to leave. You can’t talk it. You’ve got to walk it. If you truly are the leader, and right now we really don’t have one, you’ve got to be there every day in practice – compete every day through minor injuries, minor illnesses,” said Hughes. “It’s not a job description that you pick and choose when you want to be a leader. You’re either a leader every time or you’re not. [Baron] may not be the leader next year, I don’t know.”

This makes two coaches let go in one day, although neither one was a surprise.

The Clippers have let go of interim coach Kim Hughes. He had a raw deal, taking over for Mike Dunleavy, trying to change to a more open system of play when he did not have the ball handlers through the lineup to do it. Plus, right about when he took over and the Clippers had fallen out of playoff contention, the numerous free agent players on the Clippers started playing for themselves and not the team.

Here’s some comments from the official release

“We appreciate Kim’s contributions during his time here especially over the last two and a half months,” stated Clippers’ President Andy Roeser. “But we also know that our responsibility is to do what is in the organization’s immediate best interests for its ability to move forward. This season was an overall disappointment and certainly fell short of both our expectations and what should rightly have been anticipated by our fans. We will move deliberately and productively to regain the successful competitive position we had all hoped for when this past season began.”

“We think our situation is extremely attractive, both from the standpoint of the talented and popular core of players who are already under contract, as well as the salary cap flexibility we have created for this summer,” Roeser continued. “Los Angeles is a great city, we have total support from our ownership, our facilities are state of the art and we are blessed with a tremendous fan base.”

There have been rumors that part of the Clippers offer to any super-big-name free agents would be the chance to name their own coach.

The firing of Hughes was necessary. The Clippers need an identity as a team, they need both a coach and a quality free agent or two to deliver on that. Even Hughes understood that in a post-game comment a couple days ago:

“We need to declare who our leader is, determine that and we need to get one free agent at least I like our guys. I think this a great potential, great future for next year.”

Is Dallas assistant Dwane Casey that coach? He has emerged as top candidate for the job, according to several reports. He came in a close second in recent hirings in Oklahoma City and Philadelphia. However, he may not be available for some time as Dallas makes a playoff run.